Wow, I dropped the ball on this one.

I quit writing right about the time of of my students fell off for the first time. Of course, she was the one who needed to stay on as long as possible to build her confidence. One morning while we were working on steering Horse got just a little fresh and took a few trot strides. Though I told her how to respond she instead hunched over, tensed up, and screamed "I can't!" After the third round of this I finally weighed my options: He was going toward the gate and would stop when he got there. She would fall off at that point since her center of balance was so off. Or, I could try and cut him off ad she MIGHT stay on. Otherwise, she'd only hit sand. This is the option I went for, and The second I'd taken ONE step he cut the other direction and she popped off, unharmed only scared. She is terrified to ride him now, we'll be trying a new horse soon. She still loves him though when she's on the ground. It has been really hard to work around. A bigger challenge than I was expecting this early on. The other two girls are still gung-ho, and want to do more than they are able. Every time the other seven year old asks if she got trot on her own yet we work on our steering and she quiets down about wanting to trot. I think that she forgets lesson to lesson how hard it can be to work so many parts of your brain at once.

Back to trying to find a lease, and back to work.